CAIRO: Arab foreign ministers will meet in Cairo on the weekend after the United States failed to persuade Israel to freeze settlements, Arab League chief Amr Moussa said on Wednesday.
The Arab League Follow-up Committee will meet Saturday or Sunday at the request of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, Moussa told reporters at Arab League headquarters in the Egyptian capital.
"President Abbas asked the head of the follow-up committee … to call for a meeting to discuss future Arab action in light of the letter he received today from the American administration concerning its failure to convince Israel to freeze the settlements," Moussa said.
Arab League officials said Abbas was expected to arrive in Egypt on Wednesday and would meet Moussa for talks later in the evening.
Abbas is to discuss the peace process on Thursday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the Palestinian ambassador to Cairo, Barakat Al-Farra told the MENA news agency earlier.
Washington admitted on Tuesday that it has dropped a demand that Israel renew a freeze on Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the Palestinian condition for any resumption of direct peace talks.
Abbas reacted to the news saying that the peace process was in crisis.
